Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro (center) is escorted through a hallway inside the US Drug Enforcement Administration New York office building on Sunday. (White House Rapid Response's X account)
Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro (center) is escorted through a hallway inside the US Drug Enforcement Administration New York office building on Sunday. (White House Rapid Response's X account)

North Korea on Sunday "strongly" denounced the US military strike that captured Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro, calling the ouster of Maduro "the most serious form of encroachment of sovereignty."

The North's foreign ministry made the remarks as US President Donald Trump said Washington has captured Maduro and his wife in a large-scale military strike.

The North's foreign ministry "strongly denounces the US hegemony-seeking act committed in Venezuela as the most serious form of encroachment of sovereignty," according to the North's Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

The capture of Maduro came after the Trump administration's monthslong pressure campaign against the Venezuelan leader.

It was also in line with the US administration's drive to reassert American power in the Western Hemisphere and its vow to combat drug-trafficking cartels, while some critics pointed out that it proceeded without a congressional authorization process and could escalate regional tensions.

"The incident is another example that clearly confirms once again the rogue and brutal nature of the US which the international community has so frequently witnessed for a long time," the North's foreign ministry said in a statement carried by the KCNA.

The ministry urged the international community to "recognize the seriousness" of the Venezuelan situation and raise protests against the US' "habitual violation of sovereignty of other countries."

Earlier in the day, South Korea's military said North Korea fired multiple ballistic missiles toward the East Sea, marking the North's first weapons testing this year. (Yonhap)